Ms SPENCE (Yuroke) — (11 976) My adjournment matter is for the Attorney-General, and I ask: can the Attorney-General please provide details on how funding for a family violence project at the Northern Community Legal Centre will assist Yuroke residents?

I know the Attorney-General shares my commitment to the vital work that community legal centres do for people in need right across Victoria. I saw the importance of this work when I was a volunteer solicitor at the Broadmeadows Community Legal Service, the predecessor to the Northern Community Legal Centre. At a recent meeting with the CEO of the centre, Jenny Smith, it was terrific to get an update on the important work that this expanded service provides for residents right across the northern suburbs.

Noting that family violence continues to be a significant issue in the Hume local government area, I look forward to receiving advice from the Attorney-General on how this important project will assist Yuroke constituents and others who rely on the Northern Community Legal Centre.

Extract from Hansard:

In response to the member for Yuroke, I want to thank her for raising the matter in regard to the Northern Community Legal Centre (CLC) and commend her for the work that she did during her time as a volunteer for the Broadmeadows CLC. Northern CLC provides legal assistance to many vulnerable and disadvantaged Victorians across a significant catchment, and this government supports the vital work done by our community legal centres. Sadly the commonwealth has indicated that from 1 July 2017 our vital CLCs will receive a 30 per cent cut in commonwealth funding, which is very disappointing and something that I have raised with the federal Attorney-General, Senator Brandis, on many occasions.

In response to the member’s adjournment matter, I would say that in the last budget we allocated almost $24 million to strengthen the justice system response to family violence, including $4.5 million for the expansion of specialist family violence legal services to respond to high demand. We created a new $1.3 million grant round for Victorian-based CLCs and Aboriginal legal services to deliver more family violence-related services. A couple of weeks ago I was with the member for Ivanhoe at West Heidelberg CLC to announce that 28 legal assistance providers would receive grants under the Community Legal Centre Family Violence Fund, and the Northern Community Legal Centre will receive a $47 577 grant to support a project that will look at better linkages between family violence lists in the Magistrates Court, in particular Broadmeadows, and family dispute mediation. That project will be carried out in partnership with the Family Relationship Centres and will mean Victorians affected by family violence, including those in Yuroke, will get the legal and non-legal support they need as early as possible and throughout the court process. I thank the member for raising this matter.